Dissecting The New Age Movement, Part I: Who Is Looking Out For The Health Of The Nation?

All 20 patients in the study got pretty much the same medical treatment, but only half of them were prayed for by spiritual healers. Ultimately, 10 of the prayed-for patients lived, while four who had not been prayed for died.

In a larger follow-up study, Targ found that the people who received prayer and remote healing had six times fewer hospitalizations and those hospitalizations were significantly shorter than the people who received no prayer and distant healing.

'I was sort of shocked,' says Targ. 'In a way it's like witnessing a miracle. There was no way to understand this from my experience and from my basic understanding of science.'

Dr. Deepak Chopra believes 'there is a realm of reality which goes beyond the physical.' (ABCNEWS.com)

Dr. Deepak Chopra, who is well-known for his insights on science and spirituality, says these prayer experiments are proving what he's been saying all along: There are healing forces in nature that science is only beginning to understand.

'What physicists are saying to us right now,' he says, 'is that there is a realm of reality which goes beyond the physical … where in fact we can influence each other from a distance.'"

See the banner above? I didn't make it. Somebody else did - somebody who is part of the movement. So there is a movement, and you've heard about it - even without much in the way of publicity - and, like all movements, those who are in it are doing things to attain certain goals. One of The NewAge Movement's goals is to covertly influence the rest of us. To work on us, without our knowing about it - that's why there's so little publicity or serious news investigations - which is dirty. And it is now those unethical people who are the ones influencing the collective mind, and politics, of the Western World - AND - though they do not have complete control yet, they have begun to get the upper hand.

Now, Noetic Science.com is your typical "fringe" NewAge site, filled with imagery of "spiritual" stuff (pictures of Buddhist monks, praying hands, etc.) but they ripped the text, above, straight from ABC News. So both of them (Noetic Science.com and ABC News) are using the same well-known quack, "Doctor" Elizabeth Targ, as a reference - though her studies were flawed, and her scientifically-NewAge beliefs caused her to die a sad, pathetic death - a fact ABC News and Noetic Science, both, could have easily discovered using Google.

They are, both, also using "Doctor" Deepak Chopra, the famous NewAge quack I covered recently for his anti-American comments on CNN - a venue where he had no place speaking, on a subject with which he has no expertise - not that he has expertise on any subject except for the gullibility of the public and fraud.

So ask yourself, why are these three supposed "information sources" (one, supposedly, looking out for your health and spiritual well-being, and the others - supposedly - for "news" to assist in your education and information needs) telling you outright lies and using the words of two delusional frauds as evidence? Because they're all - the quacks, the newscasts, and the spiritual believers - all of them are in the cult of The NewAge Movement. And they're not the only ones.

Is anyone going to sincerely think ABC News and CNN don't have the resources to know and print the truth behind two NewAge quack doctors? (Chopra's crimes should've been exposed years ago, but he's still a regular in such trusted media venues as PBS.) Has the press been telling us the truth about anything else - especially anything of importance? And why, if they aren't doing it, aren't they doing it?

I've got to go, but ponder that until I get back - and look around the site for more (I'm hoping this one post, with all these links and where they lead, will be enough to keep you busy for a while) - because I'll be picking this up, here, when I return.

12/4/08 UPDATE: This post was slightly re-written, today, for clarity - and the following link was added, above, so readers could understand the pathetic and sad tale of Elizabeth Targ - to show how NewAge beliefs (which most people think are "harmless") are actually a trap of delusional ideas that, ultimately, do great harm.

2 comments:

""Doctor" Elizabeth Targ, as a reference - though her studies were flawed"

Why the quotes? Targ was a doctor--Ph.D.--with impressive educational credentials and history.And how exactly her studies were "flawed"? Do you actually have any evidence of those "flaws," or are you just shooting blanks? You do not happen to be an expert in research methodology and statistics, do you?

Targ and her father, Russell Targ, were and are stereotypical quacks. And quacks with credentials are still quacks: the credentials just make them more dangerous.

Luckily, in the case of Elizabeth Targ, the only person seriously harmed was herself.

And one doesn't have to be an expert in research methodology and statistics to notice the obvious flaw in ANY prayer study:

What's the control group?

People who pray for the specific patient? How about the people who pray for "everyone" on Sunday in church? Are they in or out? See the problem? You don't have to be an "expert" to see it, because good ol' common sense will do - something most NewAgers (and other believers) lack.

If you'd bothered to follow the links I provided on ET (duh: this is the "internet") you'd have found this article from Wired Magazine, and already learned how well she blew her study (and seen that, like most quacks, she really blew it).

Now, I always wonder about the motivation of people who leap to the defense of NewAgers and quacks - please, what's yours?

Comments

"The Crack Emcee is the Truth-teller and the Trickster, he is the Jokerman: he is the Black Conservative who has found his own ‘Slow Train Coming.’ To repurpose a bit of Dylan history: the commenters are yelling at him ‘Judas’ and his reply is ‘I don’t believe you.’"

"In a different time and place, Crack and I knew each other pretty well and his work inspired me. Though more political and sociological, he covers a similar ground from a non-believers perspective, but is unabashedly conservative politically. Check it out, but it's deep dark water; the feints may be indistinguishable from the sincere and it's not for the faint-of-heart."

"Raising his Pimp Hand to the Lunatic Fringe. Yeah, I list him three times. You need to read his blog. Danger: You might not get it at first but I assure you that when you do, you will slap yourself in the head like the idiot you once were. Read it. Love it. Learn it. And that pile of smelly goo at yer’ feet? That’s just the entrails of your stinking idols baking in the hot sand of the Crack Emcee’s arena."

"He imbues his words with so much bite, wit and shading that a lyric sheet doesn't begin to suggest the depth of what he's conveying. What he does is articulate soul-knowledge, those truths we hide from or can't find the words for. You listen to it with mouth agape, not because it's radical in content but because it's raw and honest, unconcerned with the truth-gagging politics of celebrity -- which perhaps makes it radical after all. If Paul Mooney and Nina Simone had a baby, then ignored it, leaving it to raise itself up by its own brilliant and righteously embittered genes, the Crack Emcee would be the result."

"I have been mulling over for awhile now how I might act as a ‘force for good’ in this world. I am particularly interested in the danger associated with cults and indoctrination at all levels of the human experience. How might I help combat this? The Crack Emcee does it,...in addition to blogging on his many other interests, and he has been a big inspiration."

"Day after day, post after post, he gives incredible insight into issues we're all pursuing, but he's got this funky, incredible, hilarious, SPOT-ON take on things. He is a one-man Time Magazine, the way it SHOULD be.

"I just came across The Macho Response. A lovely blog,...that describes the writer's journey from Democrat to Republican. There are lots of pretty pictures illustrating his story. What he looks at with a particularly bright eye is the occultism that is at the core of the Democrat world view today."

"A politically-incorrect blog out in the Bay Area…There is an occasional picture that is not quite appropriate to an office environment, although I’m not sure this by itself justifies a 'NSFW' warning…language isn’t fit for family viewing. The ideas are definitely dangerous. Unsuitable opinions. Terrible taste. Pictures of strange ugly creatures. Yup, we’re cousins, alright,...I’m certainly gonna read this 'Macho Response' guy."

As a former homeopathic 'doctor', I commend you for your bravery and brilliance.

Your blog is like an antidote to the 'New' Age too-cool-for-school-aid that America's been drinking like it's going out style...which, with the help of brilliant minds like you, hopefully it is. The sooner the better, for all our sakes.

I can't thank you enough for saving me from the eau de toilet/oprahahaha cesspool..."